Lachlan Skipworth (born 1982) is an Australian composer based in

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

. His works span across orchestral, chamber, vocal and experimental music and is heavily influenced by the Japanese

shakuhachi A is a Japanese and ancient Chinese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo. The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the .

and the

honkyoku ''Honkyoku'' (本曲, "original pieces") are the pieces of shakuhachi music collected in the 18th century by a Komuso of the Japanese Fuke sect Kinko Kurosawa. It was believed that these pieces were played by the members of the Fuke Sect. The Fuk ...

aesthetic. Skipworth co-founded the new music ensemble Intercurrent in 2015, along with percussionist Louise Devenish, pianist Emily Green-Armytage and clarinettist

Ashley William Smith Ashley William Smith (born 1984) is an Australian clarinet player and academic. He is the chair of woodwind and contemporary performance at the UWA Conservatorium of Music at the University of Western Australia, and a member of the Queensland- ...

. He also founded the chamber music collective Cygnus Arioso with his wife, violinist Akiko Miyazawa. Both ensembles are based in Perth, Western Australia.

Education

Skipworth played in a wind quintet in high school, which introduced him to chamber music. Skipworth studied at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

, earning a Bachelor of Music Education at the

UWA Conservatorium of Music The UWA Conservatorium of Music is a teaching and research school offering undergraduate and postgraduate study in music at the University of Western Australia. It is located at the north-east corner of the Crawley campus and teaches predominate ...

, where he studied with composers

Roger Smalley John Roger Smalley (26 July 1943 – 18 August 2015) was an Anglo-Australian composer, pianist and conductor. Professor Smalley was a senior honorary research fellow at the School of Music, University of Western Australia in Perth and honorary ...

and

Iain Grandage Iain Grandage is an Australian composer and music director, best known for his compositions for theatre, dance and concert. In May 2018, the Perth Festival appointed Grandage as Artistic Director. Early life Grandage initially lived in Brisban ...

and wrote his first serious compositions. He traveled to Japan to learn shakuhachi for three years. Skipworth's main shakuhachi teachers were the revered masters Kakizakai Kaoru and

Yokoyama Katsuya was a Japanese musician who played the ''shakuhachi'', a traditional vertical bamboo flute. Early life He was born in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1934 and studied Kinko-ryu and Azuma styles of music with his father, Rampo Yokoyama, and grandfather ...

, and has been mentored by shakuhachi grand master

Riley Lee Riley Kelly Lee (born 1951) is an American-born Australian-based shakuhachi player and teacher. In 1980 he became the first non-Japanese person to attain the rank of Dai Shihan (grand master) in the shakuhachi tradition. He is a recipient of tw ...

. In 2008, he moved to Sydney, New South Wales to study at the

Sydney Conservatorium of Music The Sydney Conservatorium of Music (formerly the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music and known by the moniker "The Con") is a heritage-listed music school in Macquarie Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the ol ...

(M.Mus., Ph.D.) and studied with

Anne Boyd Anne Elizabeth Boyd AM (born 10 April 1946) is an Australian composer and emeritus professor of music at the University of Sydney. Early life Boyd was born in Sydney to James Boyd and Annie Freda Deason Boyd (née Osborn). Her father died when ...

. Between 2010 and 2011, he spent two semesters in Germany undertaking a kontaktstudium at the Freiburg Hochschule fur Musik with composer and clarinettist Jorg Widmann. Skipworth graduated with a Ph.D. in composition in December 2016.

Career

After winning the Paul Lowin Prize for orchestral composition in 2016, Skipworth earned a string of major commissions and appointments. The winning work, Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, earned the APRA Art Music Award for Performance of the Year, and was chosen by ABC Classic FM to be presented at the 2016

International Rostrum of Composers The International Rostrum of Composers (IRC) is an annual forum organized by the International Music Council that offers broadcasting representatives the opportunity to exchange and publicize pieces of contemporary classical music. It is funded by ...

in Poland. In 2016, he was appointed composer-in-residence with the

West Australian Symphony Orchestra The West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Perth, Western Australia. Its principal concert venue is the Perth Concert Hall. WASO also gives concerts at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. , WA ...

. His work ''Spiritus'' was a finalist in the Paul Lowin Orchestral Prizes in 2019. The

International Society for Contemporary Music The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music. The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the ...

selected his works ''dark nebulae'' and Clarinet Quintet as the official Australian work at their World Music Days in Slovenia (2015) and Vancouver (2017) respectively. His work has also been performed by the

Queensland Symphony Orchestra Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra in the state of Queensland. The orchestra is based in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's building in South Bank. The Orchestra is funded by private corporations, the ...

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an Australian orchestra based in Melbourne. The MSO is resident at Hamer Hall. The MSO has its own choir, the MSO Chorus, following integration with the Melbourne Chorale in 2008. The MSO relies on f ...

New England Philharmonic The New England Philharmonic is a volunteer orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1976. The current music director is Tianhui Ng. History The New England Philharmonic, a volunteer orchestra, was founded in 1976, by Michel Perrault, ...

Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. In 2019, he collaborated with Australian indigenous singer Don Nunggarrgalu and the

Darwin Symphony Orchestra The Darwin Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an orchestra based in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, founded by Martin Jarvis. The DSO gave its first concert in 1989. The Orchestra receives funding from the Northern Territory Government and su ...

. In 2020, Skipworth was one of the composers commissioned as part of

Sydney Symphony Orchestra The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra that was initially formed in 1908. Since its opening in 1973, the Sydney Opera House has been its home concert hall. Simone Young is the orchestra's chief conductor and fir ...

's 50 Fanfares project.

Psalterphone

Skipworth invented the psalterphone for his work ''The Night Sky Fall''. The instrument combines the layout of a

psaltery A psaltery ( el, ψαλτήρι) (or sawtry, an archaic form) is a fretboard-less box zither (a simple chordophone) and is considered the archetype of the zither and dulcimer; the harp, virginal, harpsichord and clavichord were also inspired by ...

with the sound of a bowed

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist, ...

Discography

Skipworth's ''Chamber Works vol. 2'' debuted at #1 on the

ARIA In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...

Top 20 Classical/Crossover Albums chart.

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of

Australian music The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions o ...

. They commenced in 1987. ! , - ,

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

, ''Chamber Works, Vol. 2'' ,

ARIA Award for Best Classical Album The ARIA Music Award for Best Classical Album, is an award presented within the Fine Arts Awards at the annual ARIA Music Awards. The ARIA Awards recognise "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", and have been given ...

, ,

Other awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skipworth, Lachlan 1982 births Australian composers Living people